Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-19
DAILY HERALD.
THE NICHOLS DITCH,
What the People Think OF
its Maintenance.
4 MIAsMATIC INCUBATOR
Peoule Who Think the Nuisance
Should be Abated at
Once.

The condition OF the Nichols Ditch
i attracting considerable attention
and it is likely to attract more, unless
something is done to abate the nuis-
auce it creates very shortly. A repre-
sentative of the HERALD visited the
ditch yesterday and found that its con-
dition had not been misrepresented.
Il is certainly one of the worst men,
aces to health that has been allowed
n exist in civilized community for
some time. 1t makes its appearance
in the open air ON Ingraham street
about a hundred feet from the inter
section Of Pearl street and throughout
its whole course to the reservoir it is
= continuous mass of miasmatic slime.
As breeder of disease, mosquitoes.
and stencil it is without an equal and
Il is no wonder that the residences
along its course contain many cases OF
typhoid fever. In December Of 1885,
notice Of intention to establish
the grade of Ingraham street
was adopted by the City Coun-
Gil, and during the same month
the resolution establishing the grade
was adopted and published. Here the
matter dropped, instead of taking the
usual course, and the citizens in that
vicinity are still wondering why pro-
posals of bids for grading were not ad-
vertised for by the Council, as usual
in such cases. The property-owners
say that the reason why the street has
not been graded is because the
Nichols ditch interferes, and the street
could not be graded without either
piping or filling it in. The ditch runs
for about a hundred feet along one
side of the street in the open air, and
then it crosses the street diagonally to
the opposite side, where it continues
its course short distance, and then
enters private property skirting the
base of the hills. This diagonal
crossing of the street absolutely pre-
vents the passage Of teams along the
street, and since the street is public
highway, the property-owners of that
neighborhood think that the Super
intendent OF Streets should be di-
rected to remove obstructions at once.
The residents in the neighborhood
admit that some steps are being taken
by the Council to pipe the ditch, but
they claim that if the present slow
rate of progress is kept up they will
be in their graves before relief comes.
One gentleman said yesterday that
the bid which was sent in a short
time since should have been accepted
even if it was a trifie higher than it
ought to have been. sit would have
been better for the city to pay a little
more money for constructing the pipe
and laying it, than to render itself
liable to heavy damages for sickness
and perhaps death. We have as
much right to sue the city for damages
as we would private individual, and
the city has no more right to maintain
3 nuisance than an individual. We
claim that if one Of us should have
such an unhealthful nuisance in our
yards it would have been abated long
since or else we would have gone to
Jail. 1t is pity that the responsible
parties in this case cannot be made to
abate the nuisance or do the
same. The Health Officer has de-
clared the same to be nuisance
but the Board of Health took no action
in ordering it abated Immediately. If
il cannot be piped inside of week it
should be filled in and the water let
ont until the piping is ready. The
health of the people is of more import
ance than the $50 worth of water which
is sold each month. We pay more in
one day for doctors bills and medi-
cines than the ditch pays to the city in
q month, and the least that could be
done would be to turn the water Off
and fill in the ditch until the pipe is
laid. 1t is stated that under the law
a ditch cannot be abandoned, but fill
ing it up temporarily would not be
abandoning it, and if any one is to
suffer let it be those who use the
water to keep a few blades OF grass
green some blocks further down. The
lives of our children are of more i'm
portance than the grass of those
persons, and we want relief i'm
mediately. If we don't get it
we will fill the ditch in our
selves and abate the nuisance as fast
as it is recreated. Something must be
done Immediately"
Another resident was equally en-
phatic in his remonstrance against
this nuisance. He said that it was
probable that showing would be
made before the Council to-day which
would astonish it's members and incite
them to immediate action. He hoped
that the residents Of the vicinity would
turn out in force to-day. 1t was his
intention to convince the Council that
the water should be turned off and the
ditch filled in until the piping is ready.
After the pipe is laid he did not care
how much the water sold for or who
used it, but at present he did not see
how the Board of Health could per-
NIT a continuous pool of stagnant
water with it's surface of slime to stay
In existence for even day. Even if
bids are received to-day it will be sew
eral weeks before the work of piping
will be done, and those weeks will be
sufficient to kill fifty children and grown
people. SIT is pity that in a city so
beau iful and healthy as Los Angeles
there should be allowed to exist for a
single instant such a death-dealing
nuisance as the Nichols ditch"
This opinion represented in mild
language that OF everybody along the
whole line OF the ditch, and it is prob
able that a vigorous protest will be
made in Council to-day.
Bids will be received to-day for the
construction and laying of the pipe in
the ditch, and it is hoped that the
piping will be FASTENED as much as
possible.